Quotes on Imitation
Opinionated quotations from the famous and not-so-famous.

He who never walks except where he sees other men's tracks will make no discoveries.

Unknown

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville

To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.

Lichtenberg

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

Albert Schweitzer

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

Eric Hoffer

Whoever wants to set a good example must add a grain of foolishness to his virtue: then others can imitate and yet at the same time surpass the one they imitate—which human beings love to do.

Friedrich Nietzsche

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.

Quintilian

The only good copies are those which make us see the absurdity of bad originals.

François De La Rochefoucauld

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

Salvador Dali

Everyone alters and is altered by everyone else. We are all the time taking in portions of one another or else reacting against them, and by these involuntary acquisitions and repulsions modifying our natures.

Gerald Brenan

Originality breeds imitation which breeds originality.

Duane Alan Hahn

Men nearly always follow the tracks made by others and proceed in their affairs by imitation, even though they cannot entirely keep to the tracks of others or emulate the prowess of their models. So a prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding. If his own prowess fails to compare with theirs, at least it has an air of greatness about it. He should behave like those archers who, if they are skilful, when the target seems too distant, know the capabilities of their bow and aim a good deal higher than their objective, not in order to shoot so high but so that by aiming high they can reach the target.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Back to Top